MONSTERS AND KIDS

Mary Elise MonsellCHICAGO TRIBUNE

Usually I write for children through the intermediaries of lizards, penguins and orangutans. But the events in Oklahoma City compel me to venture out of that safe fantasy world and examine a world where sudden violence can shatter all feelings of "all-rightness."

I worry about how children must be feeling about this. Do they think bombs will be parked outside their school or near their baseball field? Will they be told to dive beneath their desks during "fruit break?" Do you remember air-raid drills? I do. Are things so different?

Oh, it can be a terrible place now, this jarring world where the worst thing happens. And the unedited swath it cuts is seen immediately even by the most innocent of eyes. Children should not know that children can die this way. Not ever. But children should know, and so should all of us, that there is a much bigger world that's still all right.

I visit many schools, and I see thousands of children who are surrounded by loving adults. These children still have recess and laugh. Their faces are open, full of hope and the eagerness of learning new things.

There are adults who carefully tend to the process of reading, those who want children to discover books and magical worlds untouched by the unthinkable. There are so many of these very good people in the world, more of them than the monsters. And there are a lot more of those who care than those who don't.